Shinobi For Hire
by HarbingerLady
Summary: A lone shinobi accepted mission from both muggles and wizards. Start from the fight in Hogwarts. HBP spoiler with some differences. HPNaruto crossover
1. The fight at Hogwarts

Author's Note: Ok, this is another HPNaruto crossover that HBP inspired on me.

This is rated as M fic. Just like Ashura, there will be many deaths and blood portrayed in this fic, only perhaps with more fighting action (hopefully).

Oh, and I don't give a rat ass on Harry's relationship with Ginny in HBP. Consider it terminated (like in HBP he was going out (and broke up) with Ginny, but he'll never make up with her here)! I don't want to change the content of the general idea of HBP in this fic. And that unfortunately makes me have to portray Dumble as a saint…well, not exactly a saint per see but as a somewhat decent guy, and not the manipulative bastard I often portrayed him to be in my other fics. Man…

Or perhaps I'll just find a way to make him a manipulative bastard even if he was 'dead'. I can twist here…and there…and it will be like that.

Or perhaps I'll just forget about it and let Dumbledore stay out of the fic and stay dead, to avoid possible headache.

About the battle in the castle, I don't know how many death eaters were attacking Hogwarts, so I'll just assume that it was many. There will be perhaps some differences from canon, because I'll change it somewhat for the sake of this fic.

This fic will be updated slowly though, since there will be many actions inside. And I'd like to describe the action as detailed as I could, so the readers understand it. Note that it is easier to make detailed action when the combatants are all ninjas, instead of ninja vs. wizard. Btw guys, know any site that have the list of jutsu's name and the description of the technique. I'm too lazy to watch Naruto again just to note all techniques inside. If you write the address, please make it like this: www(.)fanfiction(.) net. If you wrote the address the usual way, it won't be showed in the review page. Thanks!

Btw, in this fic, magic isn't the same with chakra. And the ninjas isn't able to do any kind of magic if they aren't magical. There will be only a ninja for now, more will come much later in the story to add some twists for this fic. That's what I planned for now.

:D :D :D :D :D

Chapter One

More than a dozen black robed and white masked people passed through the corridor leading to the astronomy tower, led by a platinum haired young man. They were running through it, as if time was important, and they couldn't afford to move slowly.

A figure concealed by shadow was standing on the ceiling, hands crossed on his chest as he continued to watch them. His feet were firmly planted on the ceiling's surface. The man followed them silently, walking on the straight ceiling as if it was not a big deal, defying gravity and all.

Right now he was deciding whether they were threats to his mission or not. He was hired just yesterday to protect the castle when his client, the man he hadn't met yet because he was only approached by one of his men, was gone for an errand. Not even hours after he arrived at the huge castle, these people were here. He was curious as to how they came into this place. They weren't running from the castle gate's direction, that much he knew. They seemed to appear out of nowhere. Of course he heard about apparation, but from what he knew, this castle was supposed to prevent it to happen.

His client's man didn't give him much info about his mission, only what he task was, which was to protect the castle, and how much money he would gain from accepting it.

The man rummaged the limited data he had and concluded that they were the infamous death eaters whose boss was clashing against his current client. Which meant they were obstacles that needed to be eliminated. The man frowned behind his white masked, so unlike the Death Eaters' ones, blue orbs darkened by the shadow peered from the 2 holes designated for the eyes. From what little he knew of his client, he was a man who believed in second chance. A load of bullshit, of course. He wondered if taking these people' lives would mean that his payment would be cut.

The man shook his head. If his client dared to do it, he would just have to kill him. No one mess with him!

Stalking them, he grabbed the last man in the line and retreated back to the shadow. The group went on, not realizing one of their numbers was missing.

The mysterious man left the lifeless body on the cold floor and was back to follow the others. He contemplated to kill them right now, but he was curious with what they planned to do. And he wanted to know more about these people. It wasn't often he received mission from wizards, his clients were usually muggles. Beside, his mission didn't state to protect the castle' inhabitants, only the castle.

The man sniffed the air and frowned. One of them smelt funny. It was a bit similar with his former comrade's scent. It came from one of the unmasked ones. The rough looking man was grinning maliciously, muttering about how delicious children' bloods were. He looked like a psychopath who was eager to catch someone and to 'play' with his victim. Just like the others, he didn't realize his presence.

The eyes of the figure in the dark were trailing after him, deciding that he would probably be able to challenge him, somewhat. So far he only knew that these wizards were quite pathetic when it came to physical dueling. Dodging their spells, snatched their stupid sticks and they would be completely vulnerable under his mercy, which he had none of, unfortunately, for them.

The figure thought to go back to America once this mission over and from that traveled throughout the world, just like what he had done for 1 ½ years. The only thing that drove him to go to Europe from America was a rumor, stating that the situation was bad here, and so there would be many who would be interested with his service, for a price of course.

Over 3 days he was in England, staying in a small dingy wizard motel in a dark alley famous in the circle of British's dark wizards, named Knockturn Alley, he was contacted by a group. They were lackeys of the current dark lord, though they weren't wearing white masks. He was asked to kill Harry Potter and/or Albus Dumbledore for a high price.

He almost accepted it too, if not because one of them blabbed about how great their lord was, a descendant of Slytherin whose snake house was the most superb among the other houses in one of Europe prominent magical schools, Hogwarts.

Needless to say, for a man who had a deep hatred toward snakes that he would kill any that came to his sight, this mission sucked. He had a change of mind and declined the request, not politely—mind you. The enraged and humiliated group couldn't accept it and attacked him, only to have their heads separated from their bodies the next second.

It cause havoc on the dingy bar, as people screamed and tried to get away from the scene as far as they could, fearing they would be next people he would kill. It was during that chaos the perpetrator slipped out unnoticed.

The next day he was approached by a nervous man from a different group, Dumbledore's group, the very same man he was asked to kill before. The man, whose name was Mundungus Fletcher, nicknamed Dung of all names by his associates, bargained with him for half an hour before accepting that it was no use to reduce the amount of money he asked for the payment. Dung gave him a quarter of it as direct payment and the rest when he finished his mission.

And now here he was, observing a bunch of wizards with delusions of heritage.

He smirked amusedly, licking his lips in anticipation. He retreated to the shadow and disappeared from sight.

0-0 0-0 0-0

One word to explain the situation in the Great Hall was _chaos._ The Hogwarts' staffs, some students, and several Order of the Phoenix's members were defending against the death eaters who were cursing them. Hexes were flying across the giant lobby part of the castle. A death eater who entered the hall was hit by a stray killing curse of his giant blonde comrade and dropped to the floor, lifeless. The blonde man didn't seem to notice this, as he continued to throw hexes to his enemies.

One Minerva McGonagal was wondering where on Earth her superior was at this time of emergency. The old headmaster only told her that he would be gone for hours. And now Voldemort's followers attacked Hogwarts when he was gone. This seemed to be too odd for a coincidence.

"Professor, look out!" she heard her student's yell. She whipped her head to see a killing curse heading on her way. Before she could transfigure something to block the curse, an arm encircled her waist and before she knew it, she was already 7 meters from the ground. The strict woman's eyes widened and her face was a pasty white. She gulped when whoever grabbing her dropped to the ground, taking her with him. When they landed on the floor, her knuckles were so white from gripping her wand tightly for assurance. Before she could turn to see him, she was shoved to Mundungus Fletcher.

"Make sure your comrades don't attack me," the only things Minerva could note of him were his entirely black clothes, broad shoulder, spiky blonde hair and his deep voice, before he disappeared right from her eyes.

"Who—" she asked more to herself.

"Dumbledore asked me to hire someone, and I chose him," Mundungus answered nonetheless.

"You what?" she shouted in shock, before the other pushed her behind an upturned table. Three spells whizzed past their hairs.

"Let's talk later, shall we?" Fletcher gulped and threw a hex on his own to their assailants from behind the table. The transfiguration teacher nodded in agreement.

0-0 0-0 0-0

Hermione was shocked when a man appeared behind her opponent. The black clothed figure's arm encircled the death eater's neck and with a quick twist there was a lous crack indicating that he snapped the man's neck.

The bushy haired girl was shaken when she saw the man's face as her attacker's body dropped to the floor. It was covered with a white mask. If not for the fact that the man killed him instead of her, she would think he was one of Voldemort's lackeys, as he wore white mask and black clothes too, though not robes. Before she could note the difference of the masks of the man and of the death eater, Ron shoved her to the ground.

"EXPELLIARMUS!" the red head shouted to her savior. Obviously he missed the part where the man killed her attacker and thought he was one of them.

"Ron, don't! He's not one of them!" the figure merely vanished from his spot and reappeared in front of the shocked young wizard. He grabbed her best friend's robes and shoved him to the wall with a hand roughly. Hermione watched wide-eyed when she saw Ron was struggling helplessly on the air, feet not touching the floor, as the man lifted his body.

"Never ever pointed your puny stick on me! Do it again and I'll show you the same courtesy I gave to people who annoyed me. Got it, kid?" before Ron could answer he let him go and dashed to the nearest death eater. Even in her shock, Hermione noticed the man's weird accent.

"Who the hell is he?" Ron rubbed his sore back after being shoved to the wall.

"I don't know. One thing I'm sure of is that he isn't a death eater. He…he killed my attacker," the young woman whispered, still in shock seeing the man killed the death eater and threatened Ron.

"He WHAT?" Ron shouted. "PROTEGO!" his shield deflected a stray curse. "Okay, let's talk about it later. I don't want to be a barbeque tonight!"

"Agreed!" his brunette friend answered.

0-0 0-0 0-0

Kingsley and Remus, who was defending the wounded Bill at the time, were shocked still when their opponents' bodies were cut to pieces and blood sprouted. As the pieces of flesh fell to the floor, they saw someone behind the now dead death eaters.

A tall male with black clothes were drenched by the blood of the people he killed. The red liquid sprayed his white mask and sunny hair. He was gripping something invisible, most probably the weapon he used to kill them. Remus squinted his eyes and he could see the blood coated something, creating a red line on the air. Droplets of blood dropped to the floor as gravity ruled. A realization struck his mind and the werewolf knew right away that the man used a thin transparent string. That was why he wasn't able to see the weapon, if not because of the blood covering it.

The man vanished before he could open his mouth to say something.

"If you guys have spare time, why don't you help the others?" Nymphadora Tonks shouted breathlessly as she dropped her last offender. Her eyes froze when she saw the bloody carnage. "What the fuck is that?" her eyes bugged out.

The two men looked at each other in silence before they turned at her, "Death eaters," they said simultaneously. The clumsy witch looked at the heap of flesh and them, back and forth, in disbelief.

0-0 0-0 0-0

Ginny almost vomited at the sight in front of her eyes. The mysterious man was seen attacking the death eaters with the glowing blue light that was shaped as claw that came out from the knuckles of his black fingerless gloves. She was scared, not from the dark lord's follower, but from the man who had killed them so easily, quickly, and mercilessly. She was afraid she would be the next target. The logic that the man was Dumbledore's ally, judging from him attacking the death eaters, couldn't destroy the image of a ruthless man. And the red head could bring herself to trust a guy who wore a mask to hide his face.

She watched as the man was making weird gestures with his fingers. She couldn't see it clearly because whatever the man was doing, he was doing it fast, making it appeared like a blur to her. He smacked the ground with his palm. For the next 5 seconds, that felt like a millennia, there was nothing happened, but soon the ground shook and the former cold floor turned into a field of pointed spikes, impaling the death eaters in the area in front of him. Cries and screams of pain rang throughout the victims' throats.

"Oh my God," Ginny took a step back, her wand clattered on the cold floor. Beside her, Luna covered her mouth in surprise, an event that has never happened before. Luna never surprised.

"Merlin's beard!" Neville cried out in shock.

The death eaters who were attacking the others stopped short. They were turning to see just what made that loud commotion. They recognized their comrades' cries of pain. Their jaws dropped behind the white masks that concealed their facial shocks. Their body language betrayed them though.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING, IMBECILES? KILL HIM!" one of the death eaters, a huge blond man that killed his own companion with his strayed killing curse, bellowed loudly. It snapped them out of their frozen state, but some of them were already fallen when the Phoenix members used the moment of inattention for their advantage.

Half of the remaining death eaters were hesitate to kill a man who had taken down many of them without broken a sweat, but the rest attacked him at once. The figure stayed on his spot, even knowing the jet of beams heading on his way. He simply leapt at the last second, 8 meters on the air, shocking both sides.

"Ignore it! It's just magic! Attack him on the air, he won't be able to retaliate!" the blond yelled before he was stunned by Neville.

"Constant vigilance, you idiot!" the young man mocked him, having been influenced by Mad Eye Moody, before he ducked under a table to avoid the 2 killing curses meant for him. Several death eaters complied with their stunned comrade's command and shot 2 cruciatus, 2 killing curses, and an unknown dark curse with blue colored beam.

The black clothed man twisted his body in the air to avoid a killing curse. He threw 2 kunais to struck the unknown curse and a cruciatus, before he used his now red string to wrap around a huge column and swung out of the way. The killing curse missed its target by meters, while the other cruciatus curse's aim was off from the first it was shot.

In their distress, some of them were fallen to Hogwart's defenders' curses, while others ducked for safety. They revived their stunned teammates, but couldn't do anything to those who were injured. The situation was now turned as the attackers turned into defenders and the other way around. The Phoenix members quickly reorganized themselves and assaulted their foes.

The black clothed figure vanished from sight, knowing that his help was no longer needed.

He saw someone was running through the great hall. A pale man with a greasy black hair. Since the others let him go, he assumed that he was their comrade, so he didn't pay attention on him.

The running man was watching the Hogwarts' staffs rounded the wounded death eaters wide eyes, as if disbelieving they could do that.

"Severus, you're late. We already dealt with them. Nonetheless you can help use tying the men who are still alive."

"I'll go see Dumbledore!" the former potion teacher said before he ran to the headmaster office.

"Uh…professor McGonagall, I remembered that some of the death eaters slipped us and followed Malfoy…" Neville lifted his hand.

"WHAT?" she cried out before she ran, following her colleague. Kingsley went with her. The wizard and witch watched Snape ran on the staircase when they heard noises on the office. They were shocked though, when they slammed into an invisible barrier.

"What is this?"

"Apparently a ward to prevent anyone from entering," Kingsley answered. He whipped his wand and tried to break the ward.

"But Severus passed through it," the old woman stated as a matter of fact. They both looked at each other, each realized that perhaps it was his dark mark that allowed him to pass through the ward.

After a minute of trying to break the ward, they were quite surprised when Snape was running down the stair, followed by the scared looking young Malfoy. Three death eaters followed him. Kingsley immediately recognized Fenrir Greyback. The last person to run down stair was someone they didn't expect at all, a furious Harry Potter whose eyes were red as if he had just cried.

Thinking that Snape was running from the death eaters, they allowed him to pass and attacked the three. Fenrir ran past them, leaving the pair of siblings behind him. McGonagall wanted to follow him, but one of the death eaters, the female one with the name of Alecto, attacked her, so she had to defend herself. The same happened with Kingsley and Amycus.

The Boy-Who-Lived ignored them and continued to pursue Snape and others. Hand was gripping his Holly wand tightly. The werewolf quickly detached himself from the fray and flew at him. (AN: this is taken from the book) He was on top of Harry before Harry could raise his wand: Harry fell backward, with filthy matted hair in his face, the stench of sweat and blood filling his nose and mouth, hot greedy breath at his throat—

"Pertrificus Totalus!"

Harry felt Fenrir collapse against him; with a stupendous effort he pushed the werewolf off (AN: end the copying of HBP book). He could see from the corner of his eyes that the fight in the great hall was over, with death eaters as the losers. His eyes froze when he saw the area where pointed spikes protruded from the ground. That wasn't there when he departed from the school.

Seeing that they already handled the situation, Harry ran through the hall and chasing Snape and Malfoy.

The man in the shadow looked at the scene confusedly. He was pretty sure that the boy with the greasy haired man was the person who led the death eaters in Hogwarts. So what was he doing with him? It just didn't make sense. He saw a black haired young man running after them in fury. He didn't immediately recognize him, but when he caught the scar on his forehead he realized that he was watching the so-called Boy-Who-Lived. Weird name, just like many other ridiculous names these wizards and witches came up with.

Shaking his head, he concluded that it wasn't his business, and he went back watching the living death eaters were gathered in one spot.

He noted that some of them were quite squeamish by the sight of blood and pieces of flesh on the floor. The witch with the same pink bright hair as his former teammate even vomited on the floor. He smirked mockingly.

'And they called themselves aurors,' he snorted inwardly.

TBC…

Um, okay…I try my best to make parts of HBP happened in this fic (Snape escaped with Malfoy, the revelation of the Half-Blood-Prince, Dumbledore's death, etc), hopefully the story will be able to flow quite well enough.

As you can see, I haven't revealed the name of the assassin, but I'm pretty sure some of you already figure him out by now. For the ones who don't know, it is areal character from Naruto, don't worry, not an OC chara. I'll reveal who he is later in the next chap…perhaps. I haven't written it yet.

Do you like the title? I was confused on the title at first, when suddenly the word 'shinobi' and 'hire' struck my core and voila, the name of this fic.

Ok, hand me the reviews!


	2. The Next Mission

Author's Note: fiuh, at last this chapter is finished. I spent my days completing my assignment, playing tradewinds2, and reading English mystery/detective books that I bought in a book fair to improve my vocab and better story writing. Notice that I don't write better 'grammar', though hopefully it will improve too. They were really cheap, the books, I mean. Though it was probably because they were old books (still in good condition though). Only Rp.6000,00 – Rp.7500,00, mostly Rp.6000,00, that's probably 60 cents (100 cents to a dollar, right?) if a dollar (US) equals to Rp.10.000,00. I bought 9 books. I am only able to read a book for now, and it isn't even finished yet. Hopefully after my mid exam, which is in this week and next one, I'll be able to.

If you already read my other HPN crossover you'll know right away whom the main character is. Yep, you get it: Naruto. Who else a canon chara with blue eyes, blonde hair, and pink haired girl as a teammate? I have never written any HPN fic without Naruto before (except for Ashura, but that was because Naruto hasn't entered the fold yet, but he'll be, later). In my HPN and Naruto fics, I have portrayed Naruto as a guy with similar manner with the original, as a badass, as a leader, as an avenger, etc.

And now I'm trying to portray Naruto as a missing-nin, not that it is his choice of career, but it is for his survival. This Naruto accepts mission from everyone ranging from poor old man to crime lord (as long as his client doesn't annoy him). He only accept mission if he liked it, which meant good payment (not just in cash form), challenging, when he is in mood, and get respect (or at least fear) from his client. A solemn and cold missing-nin Naruto if you catch my drift.

I'm trying to make another version of Naruto guarding Harry. I'll try to make him as a cynical, sarcastic, and cold ninja as best as I could.

Some of the dialogues and sentences were taken from HBP canon cuz I'm too lazy to make them up on my own.

In the end I didn't say the Naruto's identity in this chapter. But since most of you were right in your assumptions, I didn't really care to spoil that it was Naruto.

My flash disk is gone! I still have the part with the battery place, but the flash disk part is gone! O man, my bro is gonna have a fit when he hears it. He's the one who gave it to me. Alright, part of it was from my mom, but he paid the rest. To make matter worse, there are my notes there for my lesson and the exam for that particular lesson is next Monday! I'm screwed! If I don't find it, I think I have to eat instant noodle for a loooong time and cut my Internet time to replace it. T-T That's the only way I can do without alerting my mom and bro that it's missing! Too bad I won't be able to get flash disk with the same capacity as my first without having to reduce my expenses for months. Ugh…I think I'll just have to be satisfied with a 128 or 256 MB without MP3. Goodbye my 512 MB flash disk! Hiks! And I only have it for 4 months! Whoever took it, I hope he/she dies of horrible death! Son of a bitch!

Chapter Two

Many Hogwarts' staffs, order members, and several students were occupying the Hospital Wing. Some were treated and rested on the beds, while others were trying to find any information whatsoever about what had just transfixed on Hogwarts tonight. The Weasley clan however, was most anxious to hear about the condition of one of their members, Bill Weasley, who had been bitten by Fenrir Greyback, the inactivated werewolf. Half of the clan wasn't there yet though.

"—No cure for werewolf bites," the nurse of Hogwarts said forlornly.

"But he wasn't bitten at the full moon," Bill's youngest brother cried out in denial before looking at the only werewolf on the room for hopeful confirmation. "Greyback hadn't transformed, so surely Bill won't be a - a real - ?" he choked.

"No, I don't think that Bill will be a true werewolf," said Lupin, "but that does not mean that there won't be some contamination. Those are cursed wounds. They are unlikely ever to heal fully, and - and Bill might have some wolfish characteristics from now on."

"Dumbledore might know something that'd work, though," Ron said. "Where is he? Bill fought those maniacs on Dumbledore's orders, Dumbledore owes him, he can't leave him in this state -"

"Ron … Dumbledore is dead," said Ginny.

There were cries and panic from the mass of people.

"- more Death Eaters arrived - and then Snape - and Snape did it. The Avada Kedavra." Harry couldn't go on.

The ninja who stayed in the shadow frowned when he heard the news, ignoring the rackets created suddenly by people there. He was, however, looked up when he heard the sad singing of phoenix, his client's phoenix, correction, his dead client's phoenix. He had never heard it before. It was apparently true what many people said about the firebird's singing. It was beautiful, even when the tone was heartbreaking. For those magic users maybe, because he couldn't muster any kind of pity to the now dead man. He was too used by death. The only thing bothered him was his payment. With his client died, who would pay for it? He sure as hell wouldn't just give a free service. He wasn't a social worker. He was a mercenary.

Beside it wasn't like it was his fault the old man was now dead. It was because of his own ignorance to keep information from him. He had finished his objective which was to protect the castle until his client arrived back, and since he had arrived on Hogwarts, his mission was already over by then.

The blonde figure looked at the grieving looks of everyone inside the room, excluding those who were sleeping. For some reason it reminded him of an event years ago. At his first chuunin exam. Many people too mourned sandaime's death.

He looked up when the door to the hospital wing was opened by a plump woman followed by a nervous looking man and the last, a beautiful young woman.

"Bill!" she cried out when she saw the state of her oldest son. "Oh Bill!" There was hushed conversation after that.

The ninja was bored. He wasn't one for drama, and seeing a mother fussing her son made his heart clenched. He didn't have a mother to fuss over him as he grew up. The only one to ever do something remotely resembled it was his second sensei's teammate, and she was much more of a big sister than a mother.

Growling in annoyance and shoving that thought to the dark of his mind, the figure stepped down and revealed himself. No one noticed him, as there was no sound coming out from his steps. Only after he appeared behind the man who first approached him and spoke did they notice his presence.

"Send the rest of the payment to the vault I wrote here," Mundungus Fletcher jumped a feet when a voice said it behind him. He felt something was shoved to his hand. When he looked at it, he found that it was a piece of paper with numbers written on it.

The others were backing off, remembering what he had done to the death eater on the hall. Mr. Weasley drew his wand, not knowing who he was, while Fleur and Mrs. Weasley shrieked in fear, thinking he was a death eater because of his black clothes and white mask.

"W-what? But you fail your mission! If anything, I shouldn't pa—," Fletcher wasn't able to finish that sentence he was shoved to the wall in the same manner of what he had done to Ron, only rougher. The red head winced sympathetically.

"Fail? What do you mean by 'fail'? The mission is a success. I had to protect this _castle_ when the client was gone for an errand, which mean _Dung_," he sneered, "That when he arrived, the mission was over. Do you hear me? Over. And it wasn't like my mission was to protect him. If anything your abysmal information had to be blamed," he increased the force if his hold, making the man squirmed painfully. "So please, don't tempt me to hurt you," he hissed furiously. Mr. Weasley's hand was being held by Remus who shook his head.

"Or would you like to join those corpses in the hall?" the smuggler quickly shook his head vigorously, while pissing his pants, making the mysterious man grimaced, though they couldn't see his expression. "Afraid of me, Dung? You should. I'm professional and I always get my job done. Now it's your turn to be a professional client. Do not upset me, or you'll end up as those people that had double-crossed me," the shaking man didn't have the gut to ask what he had done to them. "Good!" the man put him down and turned his back. He stopped halfway from the exit. "Oh and Dung, if I find the amount of money is less than what we had agreed on…I won't be nice," he gave a mocked salutation and walked to the door, leaving the man shaking on the floor, unable to stand.

"Wait!" McGonagall's voice rang throughout the room, making him stopped. The others thought that she had gone batty. The black clothed man stopped for a moment before he turned.

"Yes?"

"I'd like to hire your service," the transfiguration teacher stated without hesitation.

"WHAT!" the others shouted in disbelief. What madness has entered her brain to ask him for his service?

"I refuse," he replied.

"But you haven't heard my request yet!"

"Judging from your characterization and your eyes, I already conclude that you want me to guard the castle and its inhabitants for next year, am I correct?" The old woman appeared to be shocked, before she nodded slowly.

"Yes, your are correct."

"I don't stay in a same place for a long period, no matter how much you offer me. I don't do boring job, and I certainly refuse to babysit hundreds of stupid brats," the students looked affronted by this. "If you want to hire me, the mission duration should be short, or if it is for long time, it has to be a mission in different places. It should be challenging. No question or complains on how I handle the situation. No transgression on the contract. No questions ask about my life, my past, anything about me. The conditions of the missions could not be changed the moment we agree on it. I'm a mercenary, I kill," they winced, remembering the sight on the great hall. Hopefully the order members were done fixing that place at this time. "Not doing a lame mission. And my service is not cheap," he finished his conditions. "Ask Dung for more information. So what job other than babysitting you need me for? I do better in assassinating someone."

"I-I don't think I'll hire you to kill someone," she stuttered at the information.

"A pity, I guess I'll be going then."

"Wait!" this time it wasn't McGonagall who shouted. All eyes were focused on the green-eyed boy. "I have couple of missions for you," he said in resolve.

"…" the masked man raised an eyebrow. "I'm listening."

Harry's eyes darted around the people on the room. "Not here. I want to talk to you alone."

"Very well"

"But Harry," Hermione and Ron cried out, but he shook his head stubbornly.

"I need to do this," he nodded to the blonde man. The figure flashed and reappeared behind him and wrapped his arm around his waist before taking Harry and vanished from sight in a black blur, causing the people on the Hospital wing to shriek, thinking he was apparating.

"But it's impossible!" the Gryffindor girl yelled. The others were too dumbfounded to say anything.

0-0 0-0 0-0

Harry's eyes widened when he was put down on the floor of an—if he bothered to look around him—abandoned room in Hogwarts.

"That's impossible! People shouldn't be able to apparate insi—"

"I didn't apparate," the man cut him off.

"But—"

"No question on how I did it. Now if you can start explaining to me just what does you want to hire me for?"

Harry stared before he nodded. "Two missions actually. One of them as a side effect of the most important mission. But first I want to ask how I will be able to know that you won't betray me?"

"I'm a professional," the man sounded offended.

"Not enough. The unbreakable vow," Harry interrupted. "I want you to do it."

The man scoffed. "If you don't take my words, there is nothing I can do for you. I don't like to be bound, by _anyone_. Beside it isn't like I can do it. I'm not a wizard," the man decided to drop the bombshell.

"You're not a what?" the Boy-Who-Lived spluttered in disbelief. "But those magics you perfo—"

"Those weren't magic."

"Then what—"

The blue orbs darkened and narrowed. "I believe you're taking too long in your explanation, kid. Take my words or leave it."

"I," the boy contemplated for a moment before he growled. "Fine! I want you to escort, protect me and to help in searching some artifacts. The other mission is to kill any death eater we come across during our journey. I will pay handsomely."

"Duration? And please specify these artifacts and the fee."

"I don't know. I know nothing of the locations of these artifacts. I got some hints, but they are too subtle. Because it is a search mission, we will have to move to different locations. I don't know how much I will pay you for now. I know I'm wealthy, but I don't know how much money I have."

"That is quite stupid," the younger man glared.

"Perhaps. I don't really need them before, so I don't care much about them. If you manage to kill any member of the inner circle of death eaters I will pay you double, triple, quadruple of the pay if you kill a normal death eater, I don't care. I want them dead. But I want information from them too before you kill them."

"The artifacts," the man asked, not giving up.

Harry sighed. "They're Voldemort's horcruxes."

"…"

Harry rubbed his forehead tiredly. "Horcrux is an object in which someone plant a part of his soul, to make sure he won't be able to be annihilated completely without destroying the objects with the souls on them. To make long story short: to kill Voldemort, I need to destroy his horcruxes first."

"How many horcruxes we're talking about?"

"Four. There are seven in total. His diary that was destroyed 4 years ago in my second year. A Slytherin ring that was destroyed sometime ago by Dumbledore. Hufflepuff Cup. Slytherin Locket. Something of Gryffindor or Ravenclaw, Voldemort's pet snake, Nagini and lastly Voldemort himself. The mission is to search for clues and destroy four of the remaining horcruxes other than Voldemort. I will deal with him my self, but perhaps I will need your help to do that too."

"Hm…any special thing needs to destroy them?"

"I don't know. It needs to be researched. Hermione will be able to help us."

"That bushy haired girl?" Harry looked annoyed, as if thinking he was insulting his friend.

"Yes, her. She's smart, genius even. I will need her ability to do this."

"I refuse to protect another one in the mission. It will be too troublesome," Harry shook his head.

"She won't come with us, and neither will Ron. Just both of us, you and me."

"Is this mission dangerous?"

"I don't know," Harry said bluntly. He didn't want to repeat Dumbledore's mistake by keeping the information. "Perhaps, but perhaps not. But it most probably is dangerous. I doubt Voldemort put them in an unsafe and unguarded place. They are his lifelines. So, do you accept the mission?" he asked nervously.

"Will this mission destroy Voldemort?"

"Only if we succeed." Money, a challenge, and a possible way to acquire knowledge…all just for killing a snake…

"Check up your finances and we'll negotiate the price. As the killings are only side effects, I won't ask for reward to kill them. But I won't refuse any bonus you want to give me though for killing Voldemort's elites," the sixth year Gryffindor nodded.

"Oh then I'll ask for another mission. A mission to capture two particular death eaters if we meet them during our journey or if you meet them in another place not during our hunting. I want information they can provide me with. I don't care if it's by truth serum or tortures, preferable the latter. I want them suffer before they died."

"Who are the targets?"

"…Severus Snape and Bellatrix Lestrange."

0-0 0-0 0-0

"What do you mean you're not going to attend Hogwarts next year?" Hermione asked stubbornly at the boy who was packing his things into his trunks.

"I tell you that I need to search for horcruxes," her best friend said without looking at her.

The red head who was watching the argument in silent opened his mouth, "Hermione, Harry has told us that he wouldn't coming back here even it did reopen. I too think that this search is more important. He can study later when everything is allright," the girl glared at him before she turned toward her other best friend.

"Then we'll come with you," she said firmly.

"You can't."

"What do you mean we can't? Of course we can. We have the time, and-and you're right to say that it is more important than study."

"No, I need both of you here. You're safer here—"

"We want to be with you. I don't care if it is safer here."

"—And I need you here as my informants. Beside I have told him that it would be only two of us. And as he said, the conditions of the mission couldn't be changed after we agreed on them."

"But he's dangerous, Harry," she reasoned.

"I know," Harry nodded carelessly as he closed the lid of his trunk and faced his best friends.

"But what if he betrays you?"

"He's a pro, Hermione. And for some reason I think he doesn't like Voldemort, hate even…I could see it on his eyes, though of course his mask didn't help me with that."

"How can you be sure of that?" Ron asked, picking his words carefully.

"Call it intuition, Ron," the dark haired wizard sighed. Why were they being difficult? Couldn't they see that it would be easier to search the horcruxes in a small team?

He looked at their unconvinced looks. "Look! It isn't like we won't be able to communicate!" he threw his hand in annoyance.

"Owl post isn't safe, Harry," she pointed it out.

Harry went to his bed and took 3 parchments from the drawer of his side table. "I'm not talking about owl post. Here," he shoved 2 parchments to their hands.

"What's this?" Ron asked confusedly.

"A parchment," Harry rolled his eyes, causing his friends to glare. He scratched his head, causing his hair to be messier. "If you wrote on it and write my name, it will be shown in my parchment," he pulled up his parchment. "That way we can relay information among us without concern of being intercepted."

"Where did you get these?" the bushy haired girl frowned.

"Knockturn Alley. I ask him to buy something that will enable us to communicate without owl post. And he gave me these."

"Harry…about this man…I have drilled Fletcher for any information about him…" she sounded worried.

"And?" he seemed interested.

"Harry, he's a killer!" she shouted. "He did everything to accomplish his mission. He killed many in cold blood and didn't give any mercy."

"That was why I hired him. I want to destroy Voldemort's ranks of death eaters. Who is better on it other than him?"

"And he was also known to kill his own employers!" she waved her hands in frustration.

"Only when they tried to double-cross him, I'm sure. "

"ARRGGH!" she cried out and stomped in anger, frustrated. "Ron, tell him!"

"Uh…Hermione…" he frowned and sounded worried. "If Harry cancel the mission, doesn't it mean he double crosses him?" She froze on her track and turned around, her eyes wide. It seemed that she didn't think of that possibility.

She couldn't say anything.

The silence on the male dorm of sixth year Gryffindor was only broken by Harry's owl hooting.

**TBC…**

See? I'm not abandoning my stories. I'm just not in the mood, stupid exams, many books to be read, many games to be played, and many animes to be watched.

Snape will have to watch out! There's a bounty for his head! And Bellatrix too.

Leave me your reviews!

Uh, for people who wants to use the private message service, please write your email address (for those who wants to be answered), so I won't have to look into your profile. It will be easier for me to reply the review. Mind you not to write the address in normal way, because it won't be shown up in the review. You can use space, or ( ), whichever you prefer.


	3. A gun?

Author's Note: An OC will be introduced here who will play a part on this story.

**Chapter Three**

Harry was staring at a blonde haired man beside him in their compartment. Ron and Hermione weren't with them at the moment.

"What is it, kid?" the man turned around. Brown eyes stared at his emerald eyes.

"Is this truly your face behind that mask?" Harry ignored his anger at being called 'kid' by the man with the face of a thirty years old male.

The blond snorted. "Of course not. I'm not that stupid to use my real face. It's just a simple illusion."

"If you're not a wizard, how did—"

"Magic isn't everything. There are other things to disillusion things other than using magic."

"Like metamorphagus?" he asked, hoping he wouldn't kill him for asking.

The man started to get annoyed by the boy he recently dubbed as 'nosy kid'. "Yes, like metamorphagus for example. Now shut up, and mind your own business!" Harry shut his mouth. He was starting to think perhaps it was a bad idea and a rash decision to hunt horcruxes with this man.

The dark haired wizard pulled out a book from his trunk, while his employee seemed to be asleep, eyes closed and all. The book was one of the books the man bought using his money. He had asked him some obscure books that he thought would be needed. Hermione had a copy of each of the book. The girl was practically salivating at the sight of the books in front of her. Harry didn't know where the man bought them and didn't dare to ask, though he thought the man buy them in Knockturn Alley, just like where he bought the enchanted parchments.

Ten minutes later the train started to move and Harry wondered where the hell Ron and Hermione were. As if on cue, both best friends opened the compartment door. He noticed that the mysterious man was already waking up and was alert.

"—nestly Ron! Next time you should prepare! We almost missed the train because of your tardiness," she yelled angrily at him.

"Well perhaps next time you shouldn't bother to help me," he shot back scathingly.

"Fine! Next time I won't bother to help you packing at the last minutes!" the bushy haired girl roared. She dumped her trunk in the corner and almost greeted her dark haired friend when she noticed the man sitting beside him, apparently uninterested with them and had gone back to sleep.

"The guard," Harry mouthed. Her eyes widened and she looked up to stare at his appearance. "He said it wasn't his real appearance, Hermione," he said when he saw her entranced curious look, as if she was memorizing his face.

"…oh," said Hermione dejectedly.

"Listen, Hermione. I want you to check out R.A.B. person for me. If we know who he is, perhaps we'll be able to find the real Locket of Slytherin. It seemed that the man was Voldemort's former death eaters, so probably you can search him from Daily Prophet or something. And also search about Gryffindor's and Ravenclaw's things, please. We need to know what exactly the horcruxes are."

"Um…Harry, if you don't know the location of even a horcrux, what will you do with _him_ during your…escapade?"

"I'll most likely train in my way and then also search for any information of horcrux. Dumbledore got his hand cursed when he destroyed it. I don't know the method to destroy the horcrux safely. I'm thinking of going to Romania, and before you ask, Romania is famous with the vampire clans. Blood magic, soul magic are still used there and there is no restriction of such dark arts. There will be a high chance to dig information there."

"You're going straight to the heart of Vampire Empire?" Ron asked with his jaw dropped.

"Of course not! I'm not that stupid! There are plenty of places to visit. Though if the vampire is willing to help me, it will be useful. They're old and thus have more information than us, particularly about dark arts."

"…If it's helping, I know the leader of clan Devath in Hungary. He's old, compared to human anyway." The three jumped in surprise when they heard his voice. The blonde man opened a pair of two bored eyes.

"And what make you sure you'll be able to get out of there alive?" Hermione inquired with suspicion. She wondered if this was a move to kill Harry, before she quickly dismissed the thought. It was absurd. The man had many opportunities presenting themselves to do that, and he never took any of them.

"He owed a favor to me. He won't kill me. Although whether or not he agrees to help you is another matter entirely. You have to show him something he likes or needs. He isn't a vampire that'll just answer your question when you ask him. Oh, and he doesn't like rude people, so make sure you don't offend him."

"Are you telling me I'm rude?" Harry's anger started to rise.

"You're just a brat, kid. You act before you think of the consequence," Naruto told him bluntly. "Or can you prove me wrong?"

"I—" Harry stopped himself from shouting. Images of his rash actions were brought upon his mind. "Fine. You're right. I'm still a brat!" both of his friends didn't say anything. If there was anything they knew about him, it was that he was as stubborn as a mule. It must be hard to admit that.

The ninja snorted. "At least you admit it, unlike _him_," an image of a raven haired ninja came to his mind. The three teens looked at each other and decided to not ask him about this 'him' person. It wasn't their business and according to the contract, Harry wasn't allowed to ask about his past.

"So, are you going to go back to the Dursleys, Harry?" the brown haired girl spat his relatives' surname.

Harry shook his head. "No, I'll go to Diagon Alley to pick up some money and then rent a hotel room in muggle world, make it harder for Voldemort to search me. And yes, I know Dumbledore told me that I should at least spend my last days before I turned 17 there, but I don't see the point. What will I do there?"

"He's right, Hermione."

"Thanks, Ron. Um, can I ask you a favor?" the red head nodded. "Your father was an order member when Voldemort was still active decades ago, can you ask him about his death eaters? Ask him that you'd like to know who you'll probably deal later so you will not get any nasty surprise. Search someone with the initial R.A.B or perhaps just R.B., because your father probably doesn't know his middle name."

Ron frowned for a moment before nodding. "I'll do that."

"If both of you see something weird, no matter how insignificant it seems, report it to me. I don't want you to take any unnecessary risk—"

"Like you're currently doing, Harry?" Hermione asked him scathingly. She still hasn't gotten over him telling her not to come with him.

Harry sighed. "Look Hermione, it will be better for me to go alone. Smaller party will not draw as much attention as bigger party. Beside I need both of you here to report back to me. I'll probably visit you later when I can."

"When you _can_?" the blonde shinobi rose from his seat and walked away from the compartment when he felt that a fight would be broke out soon between them. No one seemed to care.

In the end it was hours later that Naruto came back. By then the fight was already over and the children were preparing to leave the train, as it would enter the station soon. The shinobi chose to sit on top of the train roof, so that no one would badger him. During those hours he decided that he would need to use his extensive information net he had set up for years during his days as mercenary and that they couldn't rely on his current client's best friends for reliable information if they wanted to succeed. He waited them to gather up their belongings before climbing down the train. Naruto had taken Harry's trunk without saying anything, much to his client's surprise.

"Er, thanks." The mercenary shrugged impassively.

Harry found his uncle and aunt were waiting for him agitatedly in the King's Cross station. Vernon's face turned purple when he saw his nephew from his wife's side.

"Hurry up, freak!" he snarled.

Harry bristled inwardly. "I'm not going back with you. Ever. This will be hopefully the last time we meet."

"Don't be ridiculous!" Petunia scowled. "That headmaster of yours told us that you'll need to be with us until you're 17."

"Need? What're you talking about? I don't _need_ you. And Dumbledore can't say anything about it anymore, since he's dead. Voldemort killed him," not exactly, but Snape was Voldemort's death eater.

"WHAT?" his relatives' faces were ghastly white.

"I'm sure that Dumbledore had told you that Voldemort was back, hadn't he? Well guess what? This time there is no Dumbledore to hold the maniac back from doing a killing spree," the color turned yellowish red. Naruto tapped his shoulder.

"We have to go now," Harry nodded.

"I have to go. Good bye, hopefully forever," the teen followed his hired bodyguard, leaving his relatives in a shocked state.

The blonde man led him to Diagon Alley and they went to Gringotts to solve Harry's financial problem. Harry converted half of his trust vault into muggle money and put them in a bank that had many branches all over the world for back up incase something wrong happened and they couldn't go to the magical world. They then went to a muggle hotel in the heart of London and rent a double room.

'What now?' Harry asked himself. He was at loss of what to do, as he sat at the edge of his bed.

Naruto put down the trunk on the corner of his bed and took out something from his jacket. He threw the object to Harry who caught it in reflex. The boy's emerald eyes widened when he saw the small handgun on his hands. "For your protection," Naruto simply said.

"You're expecting me to use it?"

"I don't see why you're afraid. Your wand is a weapon too after all and I don't see you freaked out."

"Yes, but a wand isn't just a weapon. It can be used for something else, unlike gun."

Naruto stared at him in silence, causing Harry to be nervous. "It _will_ be a long term mission, Potter. And I assure you there will be times where I won't be there to help you. I just want to make sure my client didn't die when I wasn't with him. You can't expect me to be there with you all the time. You need to know how to defend yourself, both with magic and without. Are you expecting me to kill all of your enemies, while you do nothing? If your resolve isn't as strong as I first thought, it will be better to cancel this mission."

Harry was silent, knowing that he was right. No matter how much he wanted it, he couldn't avoid it forever. There would be a time where he would kill someone, especially after the war officially broke out. It was better to accept it now rather than later. "Alright. But I don't know how to use it."

"How good you are with your wand?"

"I can hit any target accurately, provided they don't move too much, if that's what you're asking about."

"Then you'll have no problem learning how to use the gun in your hand. I know someone I can ask to teach you."

"You're not going to teach me?" Harry asked, surprised.

"No. He knows how to use gun better than me and he's a muggle who knows nothing about the magical side of the world. He's also a weapon dealer and has the right resource for helping you to learn, so he's perfect to be your teacher," Naruto answered.

"When can we meet him?"

"Tonight is possible. I had contacted him" he noticed that the younger man didn't seem to like that Naruto had done it without speaking with him, but said nothing.

True to what Naruto (or 'Fox' as Harry knew) had said, they went to a bar called 'The Swan' at night. Suspicious eyes greeted them when they entered it. Their eyes were focused on Harry who looked to be underage. Ignoring them, Naruto grabbed Harry's hand and led him to the table in the dark corner of the bar. A black haired man with a mustache raised an eyebrow when they approached his table.

"The wolf has eaten the moon," the black haired teen eyed his bodyguard questioningly.

"Your current disguise, eh Fox?" the man eventually spoke with a twitch of his mustache. A couple of eyes stared at the group when they heard Naruto's codename. The mustached man then eyed Harry from head to toe. "Your client? He looks really young and it's not common for you to bring your client here," he then gestured the people around him, who was actually his bodyguards to leave them.

"I need your help," the thirty years old-looking man simply said.

"Oh? What is it? Guns? Ammunitions? Those weird ninja weapons of yours? Data pad?" Fox shook his head.

"None of those, though I'll probably ask you for another shipment of…those weird ninja weapons of mine," Naruto smirked, before his face went passive once again. "I need you to teach him how to use guns, Jake." The man, Jake, raised his eyebrow in surprise.

"You know that I simply _don't_ teach anyone, right? And why don't you teach him by yourself? I know you're no slouch when it comes to gun and explosives."

"Because you're one of the best in the field. And I'm busy with something else," he replied. Harry looked back and forth between them, nervousness was attacking him, and it seemed like both of them forgot that he was there.

"Flattery will get you nowhere, Fox. Beside I'm also busy with my own schedule," the black haired man poured his vodka into a glass and gave it to the blond. He offered the alcoholic drink to the young man, but Harry shook his head. Jake shrugged and turned back his attention to Fox.

"Do it for me then. You can consider that your life debt is paid," Jake who was on the verge of drinking the vodka from the bottle stopped short and this time he really looked at Naruto.

"You're serious," he stated.

"I am." The weapon dealer then watched Harry, a calculating gleam could be seen from his black eyes. He wondered why the assassin insisted of having _a client_—of all things, to be taught to the point of using the life debt he owed him. What made this lanky looking teen special in his eyes?

"You want him to learn till what level?" he asked, his eyes still not leaving the nervous teen who felt like a trapped rat.

Fox raised his eyebrow. He was expecting Jake to refuse it for a little longer. "Until he can kill someone in the dark."

"…" he put an envelope on the table. "Kill them for me and consider my debt is paid, and I'll do it, but no more than 5 months, even if he can't reach the level you asked me to teach him and I'll leave the basic lesson to my men."

Naruto reached for the envelope and opened it. There were photos of different people inside and papers of data about them. He shuffled the photo and watched it one by one, before he put them back to the envelope. "Agreed. What kind of death you want me to inflict upon them? Clean death?"

Jake smirked. "Whatever, Fox, as long as you don't attract too much attention from the police, it's okay by me. So, no high explosive," he warned lightly.

The Kyuubi vessel snorted. "When can you teach him?"

"Where are you staying right now?"

"Brand Hotel."

Jake nodded. "My men will pick you up tomorrow and you'll go to my place. My mean will teach him the basic lesson first. Hm…Nick will be up to the task," the n he turned toward Harry. "What's your name, kid?"

Harry glanced at Naruto who nodded his head. "Harry Potter."

"Well, nice to meet you. My name is Jake Roland and I'll be your teacher soon, provided you pass your basic lesson," he added the last part and smirked.

It was an hour later Naruto and Harry exited the bar and caught a cab to their hotel. "You do know that I have no time to waste months to learn how to defend myself without magic, right? I have horcruxes to hunt."

"Then you simply have to excel your lesson. It's not as if we have much information about those horcruxes in the first place to make a search, unless you want to search them blindly. And it's not like I'll stay idle either. You don't think I'll stay and watch you learn for the whole 5 months, do you? I'll do other missions from others from time to time and I'll contact people for information about Voldermort and his movement, along with his horcruxes. The only thing I want you to do it to learn to the best you can, and if you want to learn spells you have to do it in secret. Jake and his men didn't need to know about the magical world. Understand?"

"…I guess."

"Good. Since we'll be together for a long time, I might as well let you see my real face," it was so unexpected that Harry's jaw dropped to the floor. "Tell it to others and I'll kill you," he warned, causing Harry to gulp.

Needless to say that Harry's jaw dropped further when he saw Naruto's real face. "Y-you're still young!" he exclaimed when he saw his strangely whiskered face.

"And you're younger than me," Naruto pointed out, fingers running through his spiky blonde hair. His bright blue eyes carefully watched the young wizard's reaction. "Naruto Uzumaki, yoroshiku. But always call me Fox or other names when in public, so you won't slip out my name."

"Then you shouldn't tell me your real name," Harry commented, still in disbelief over the fact that his bodyguard was _this_ young. This was the man who had butchered those death eaters as if they were cows in slaughter house? Unbelievable!

"I do whatever I want, Potter."

"Harry, call me Harry. Like you said we'll be together for a long time."

Naruto stared at the younger boy, before he eventually spoke, "…Alright. Harry then. You better sleep now. You'll need the energy tomorrow," he advised and laid on his bed, covering his body with the blanket and turned his body so his back facing Harry.

The-Boy-Who-Lived sighed and did the same after he switched off the lamp on the room. All of his thoughts were driven toward Naruto before sleep claimed him.

**TBC…**

Well, that's it for now.

From this chapter you'll gather that Naruto actually knew how to use guns. But he preferred not to use it and instead mostly using his ninja weapons or hand-to-hand technique.


	4. Gathering Info

Author's Note: My new USB has now kicked the bucket. First it caught virus brontok and then after the electric died out one night, I couldn't use it anymore! Ow, man. And now I got a stomachache…sigh.

Chapter Four

Harry was reading a book about the founder belongings that he had purchased via owl post when the door that connected his room with his hired guard's room was opened without so much knocking. His guard was still in his latest disguise form, a 6 feet middle aged man with blonde hair and brown eyes. The hair wasn't spiky like he had in his real form, but smooth and was cut short. The assassin entered the room with an inch thick papers on his hand and a shimmering green potion that Harry had come to hate and despised wholeheartedly.

"This is what I managed to find about Tom Marvolo Riddle before he went disappeared to God-Knows-Where. Trails of the time after that was a bit difficult to find for it happened long time ago and he tried to cover his tracks, but give me time and I'll find it," Naruto threw the leather bound papers on Harry's bed where the young man was sitting, reading through the belongings of Rowena Ravenclaw.

The wizard sighed as he took the paper pile and eyed it with distaste. He scrunched his nose when he accepted the potion. He gulped it down in one go with grimace. The first time he drank it, he almost vomited (and still wanted to do it actually). "Ugh, I hate nutrient potion," he put the glass on the table and drank pure water to wash away the horrible taste. "Well, Dumbledore did say that Tom always went for grandeur, one of his more-obvious weaknesses we can probably exploit. The Slytherin Ring was on his mother's former home. The Locket was, at least before whoever this R.A.B. was, stole it, it was on the Cave where he tortured his fellow orphanage mates. The Diary was on Lucius Mafoy's hand, who was one of his inner circle and I don't doubt that his estate was once used as Tom's base. Then again who knows if Malfoy Sr. actually took the book from someplace important on Tom's life?"

"So he liked to hide his horcruxes on the places that were used to be important in his life?"

"I certainly hope so. It'll make it easier for us to track them if he did." Harry paused and sighed. "You know, I'm starting to doubt I can get all of it done. Tom won't wait for me. If only I can get my hands on time turner…" he trailed off and turned to the blond. "Can you-I mean, can you get it for me?" he asked hopefully.

Naruto put his hand on his chin, contemplating the idea for a moment before he shook his head. "I know where to get them, but I don't think you should use them."

"But—"

"You'll be too tired for your training because of its side effect. Plus the others here aren't wizards. It's risky. The only solution I can offer you is to add our numbers."

Harry scowled. "I don't want Tom to get the wind of this and that's exactly what will happen if I add more people for the quest."

"Are you sure of that?" a voice whispered on his ear, causing Harry to turn around in alarm with his want drawn out. He gaped when he saw it was Fox. He turned around and saw Fox was still there, only this time there were two men flanked around him. They were identical with Fox.

"Bloody hell!" his back was pressed against the wall. His eyes darted among the four Narutos. "How?"

"Just a special ability of mine," the real Naruto, the one who had handed him the papers, dismissed his clones. "And I assure you they're not illusions. They're very much corporeal and capable to think for themselves although they're much weaker and have more limitations than me."

Harry lowered his wand and scowled for being surprised. "Do you have any other secret you want to tell me?"

"None at the moment. Found something?" Naruto grabbed a char nearby and sat on it backward, his hands were placed on top the chair.

"Well…I have noted several Ravenclaw's belongings that could possibly be horcrux. Let's see, her crystal ball. It was passed on to her descendants. According to this book—it was published last year by the way—it is currently on the hand of many times removed granddaughter, Sheila Vencraft. There was an attempt to steal it at 1957, but it failed. The ball was later put into safe box and hidden from public eyes. A curator, Leslie Dodge, had checked that the ball was real and no damage had been done to it before the aurors gave it back to its owner at the time, Ms. Sheila's mother. I don't think it's a horcrux, but I'll put it up on the list. We don't know if this Leslie guy was Tom's follower or not afterall." He scratched his head.

"Continue."

"Um there are also her bow, necklace, golden quills and spectacle—I haven't finished the Ravenclaw chapter yet, so there is possibility there are much more. Anyway we can cross out the necklace and spectacle because they were destroyed on a fire that claimed the life of two of her descendants five years before Tom was born. The charred remains were buried on Ravenclaw's grave afterward. Oh and I also found the picture of the famed Hufflepuff's Cup," at this he took the book from his night stand and opened it on the page he had marked.

Naruto tool the book from Harry's hand and stared. "This is one of the horcruxes?" the wizard nodded. "Any information about R.A.B from your friends?" Harry sighed and shook his head.

"The order knew I was up to something, but they didn't realize that I planned to get away from Dursleys. They thought I was hiring you to kill death eaters while I be a good boy. They didn't know about horcruxes and I have told Ron and Hermione to learn occlumency. Hopefully they're better on it than me," he mumbled the last part.

Naruto looked displeased. "It'll be too long if we rely on your friends," he put his hand above to cut Harry from interrupting him. "Obviously they're not in the position to do any research, being cooped up on their homes without material for them to research on," Harry had to admit it sounded true. "On the other hand _we_ can supply them with these materials."

"How?"

"By providing them a list of death eaters or possible ones."

"Uh, hello, where can we find this list? It's not like the sky will be raining of list of death eaters anytime soon."

"People like reporters usually investigate for things like this. I'm pretty sure that some ones have some lists and…are you familiar with the term unspeakable?"

Harry nodded stiffly. "Hit wizards, right? They're the equivalent of USA's FBI or CIA or UK's MI" he blinked before staring at him thoughtfully. "You don't say?" Naruto nodded.

"Yes, certainly they have data of their investigation."

"I don't think they'll just hand them over willingly. Bloody hell, you're not thinking of stealing the list, are you?"

"I am certainly thinking to do that," the blond replied.

Harry could only gape incredulously.

"…Well, that, or we can just bribe or threaten someone to do the job," Naruto added.

"I'd rather not steal the list from DoM," Harry admitted.

The blond raised his eyebrow. "Bribe or threat it is," he spoke.

"I feel low," Harry sighed. He hated doing things like the elder Malfoy usually did.

"Whatever works, don't you think so?"

Harry didn't have time to answer, as his communication parchment glowed. He read it and sighed loudly. "It's Hermione. She writes the date of Bill's and Fleur's wedding. It'll take place in The Burrow 2 weeks from now and she expects that I'll be there."

"Will you?"

"…Probably. I have promised them I'll be there. That and I'm worried death eaters will attack them. They should've held the wedding in France. It'll be safer there. Damn tradition!"

"I'm more concerned that the order will try to get you back if you go there. That will put a dent in our plan."

"I know," he nodded. "Then again I have you for things like this, don't I?" Naruto snorted.

"That won't stop them for trying."

"Then let them try."

Naruto took out a kunai from its holster on his thigh and offered the handle to Harry. "Pick it up. It's time for you to learn how to use it. I doubt you can use it like me, but you can conceal it on your sleeve for an added surprise," the young man picked it up hesitantly.

"Shouldn't I learn this before gun?"

"You are fast and have good reflex but you won't last long in training. Your body was frail, so I asked Nick to condition your body first," Harry shivered at the mention of his current trainer. He was a sadist. "I want you to have a long range weapon so if something happens you can escape."

The next 2 weeks were filled with grueling training from both Nick and Naruto. Harry felt like his palms would fall off. He found that his guard was more sadist than even Nick. Instead of just fighting with his kunai, he was trained to use his body in every way possible and to pay attention to his environment, using it as best as he could. And what irritated him more was that Naruto didn't seem to make an effort at all to beat him. He felt very much like a prey, waiting for its death by the predator who toyed with his life. Even Nick felt sorry for him. And that was something. The huge man even once stopped his training time when he saw Harry fell asleep, standing up.

Now Harry could shoot someone wherever he wanted accurately, providing the man was no more than 20 meters from where he stood…and if he didn't move around. But since no one wanted to test his capability, Harry could only train with dummies.

"You want me to use my clones as dummies and tell them to move around?" Harry nodded. "You do realize that we're surrounded by other people, right? That means no revealing anything, both your ability or mine," the boy seemed dejected by the news. Sighing, Naruto relented. "After you finish your 5 months training, I'll personally trained you with the help of my clones in somewhere remote."

"That would be great," he agreed. "I'm sure that my parents had estates or lands that we can use. We can check up with the goblins later. And I have new news from Hermione. Remus knew our R.A.B, though he was pretty suspicious when she asked him about that. Regulus Archibald Black, Sirius' brother. I'm afraid that we have to pay visits to either Fletcher or Kreacher though. The locket we found last year must be the Slytherin Locket and both of them stole trinkets from Black Manor. If it is Fletcher and he has sold it, I'm going to gut him alive. If it's Kreacher…I'll think up something." Naruto wondered if both Nick and he had rubbed off on him.

"Where are they then?"

"I suppose I'll be able to find Dung in the wedding today. As for Kreacher…KREACHER!" he bellowed. With a loud crack the old elf was instantly there. Naruto immediately locked the door.

"Oh…that mudblood godson of traitorous son or mistress is calling for Kreacher," the elf grumbled.

"Kreacher, shut the hell up. Now tell me, do you remember the locket that my friends and I found in the manor?" the elf's eyes widened. "Seems like you do. Now where is it?"

"That miserable drunken man stole it along with other things. Oh, poor Kreacher. Master Reggie had told Kreacher to keep it safe. That man must pay," he hissed. "Yes, he must pay," sad the senile elf.

"So it isn't with you, but Fletcher."

"Yess, he has it. Kreacher must take it back and keep it safe again or Master won't be pleased with Kreacher."

"Ok, fine. You can go back now. Tell no one else about it. I don't want you to approach Draco, Narcissa Malfoy, Bellatrix Lestrange or anyone else! Keep quiet about anything I do. Do you understand me?" The elf stared at him with hatred, but nonetheless he nodded and vanished.

"That's one senile creature," Naruto commented, earning him a snort. "It's Fletcher then?" Harry nodded.

"With Dumbledore's death I'm not 100 percent sure that he will be there in The Burrow."

"Even if he isn't there, my contact will be able to find him. Did your friends tell you anything about him?"

"Only that they had never seen him again."

"Let's just hope he hasn't sold it to someone."

0-0 0-0 0-0

Harry strapped his Beretta behind his black coat and slipped another on his pants, before he fixed his tie. He strapped kunai holsters on both thighs, before he concealed it behind magic. Moody would be able to pinpoint them, but he could careless about that. He strapped his wand holster on his wrist. He shrunk his trunk and put it on his pocket.

Naruto was in his usual attire, but he put henge around his body. "Are you sure this is the right attire for wedding? I thought wizards use robes or cloak."

"…To tell you the truth, I don't know. I'll just put a cloak later if I get it all wrong," he shrugged carelessly. "No time to go to Madam Malkin anyway. Let's go!" After parting with Nick, they went to a secluded alley and Harry side-apparated them to a meadow nearby The Burrow. Hermione had told him that they had put apparation wards around the Weasley's residence.

Harry wrapped his cloak around him, while Naruto just changed his henge. They both walked slowly, watching for something suspicious.

"Oh, no. Scrimgeour," Harry groaned when he saw a person that he was sure was the minister. What was he doing here anyway? He realized that the man must want to talk to him. After Dumbledore's funeral, he asked Naruto to whisk him away when he saw the man approached him again like he did in Christmas. "This time like this, I love my invisibility cloak," he muttered grimly. "Hope that Mad Eye won't blow up my cover," he mumbled. He swore when the minister saw him.

"No need for that," Naruto put a hand on his shoulder and body-flickered them to the inside of The Burrow. To be exact, Ron's room. There was no one there.

"Bloody hell, I don't think I'll get used to that. And next time warn me first, will you?"

"Don't forget to call me Fox. I'll be around," and with that Naruto vanished without trace. Harry shook his head in exasperation and searched for his friends. Most people were outside, but he was sure that the Weasleys and perhaps the Fleurs were inside. He heard the loudest commotion from the kitchen, so he thought most of them were there. While he walked, he heard loud conversation from Bill's former room, so he opened the door. Only to face unfamiliar people inside. Well not all of them were unfamiliar, there were Fleur and Gabriel there along with Molly, and 2 women that must be of Delacour delegate. The conversation was stopped right away. Fleur's mother…or perhaps her aunt stopped halfway from brushing make up on the bride's face.

"Er…sorry. Wrong place," he stated embarrassedly before he slammed the door close.

There was seconds of slice, before Molly cried out his name in surprise and opened the door to see him, but Harry had already ran downstairs. Harry met the Weasleys halfway to the kitchen, as they all heard the matriarch of Weasley clan.

"Hey, guys," he smiled. Ginny ran to hug him, but Hermione slammed into him first and threw both of them to the ground. Harry groaned when his (still sore) body was slammed to the ground. The red head frowned and glowered, making her families edged away from her. "Er, Hermione, not that it isn't nice, but I need to stand up…and you kind of breaking my ribs," the brown haired girl seemed to realize this and she stood up immediately, before she helped Harry up.

She frowned. "Are you putting weight, Harry?" he was heavier than before.

"Hey, don't say it like I'm fat or something," he joked.

"Hm…" she stared at him from head to toes. "Now that you say it…you do look…nice."

"Seems like Harrykins didn't waste—" one of the twins sangsong.

"—His time. He isn't as—" the other finished it.

"—Skinny."

"He's not bone and skin anymore," Ron agreed.

"And look at his muscles," Charlie added a cent in.

"How did you know that? I put on my cloak," Harry asked, confused.

"Of course I know. I _am_ a man."

"Is that supposed to mean something?" he blinked.

"Well one way—" Fred (or George) grabbed one of Harry's arms.

"—To find out," George (or Fred) grabbed the other. Both of them dragged Harry to Ron's room.

"Wait, wait, wait! Guys, what're you doing?" he struggled.

"Man, he is stronger than before," Fred tightened his hold. His twin did the same.

"Yes, he is."

Ron shrugged and followed them, followed by Bill and Charlie. Percy was nowhere to be found. He and Mr. Weasley must be entertaining the guests.

"You can't do this to me!" the door was slammed close, followed by a startled shriek from Harry. The women (and girls) could only watch dumbfounded.

"One will think it's Harry Potter's wedding day, instead of Bill's," Fleur's mother commented, causing Fleur and Gabrielle to giggle amusedly. (AN: don't care about the accent)

"Kind of reminds you of Bachelor Party, huh?" said the French champion with a grin, as she heard Harry's screams and the laughs of the male Weasleys.

"Well, well look at what we got here," the women (including Hermione and Ginny that had run to follow the males) pressed their ears on the door.

"THIS IS A RAPE, I TELL YOU!" Harry bellowed in panic, causing the eavesdroppers to giggle.

"Now, now, Harry. That's not nice!" it was Charlie's amused voice.

"What the—" Bill cried out. "Isn't that a gun?" there was an alarmed tone in his voice. Hermione gasped. The atmosphere went to cheerful to sober.

"Two, actually," was Harry's answer. Silence. And there was a shuffle from inside, as Harry righted his clothes.

"Gun? That muggle's candy?" Ron's voice. "Doesn't seem like it to me."

"That's gum, Ron," Harry's exasperated voice.

"Why in the hell you need _two_ guns with you, Harry?" Bill's alarmed voice.

"Protection. If there is an attack, I'll be able to defend myself without magic. Hopefully I can shoot them in the nuts," there were choking voices from inside (and outside).

"Geez, aren't you a sadist?"

"You should see my trainer," Harry muttered.

"Your trainer? That scary man you hired?" Ron asked carefully.

"No, I mean an acquaintance of his, though Fox trained me too."

"And you're still alive?" Ron asked in awe.

"I'm here right now, aren't I? I'm pretty beat up though. I got more bruises than when I fought against that blasted HungarianTail.

"Let us see!" the twins shouted eagerly.

"Hey, don't touch there!"

"Nice abs," one of the twins commented.

"Man, I won't mind the training if he could change Harry like this in short time," the other added.

"Gerroff, will you! And that one is hurt, damnit!"

"You sure you can use it, Harry?" Bill asked in concern.

"…I can show you by shooting you in the nuts 30 meters from where I'm standing. For some reason, no matter how far my opponent is, I can always shoot them there."

"NO WAY! And you had done that before?" Bill bellowed in panic.

"Just dummies…unfortunately." It was one mystery that not even Naruto or Nick could solve. They just accepted it as a fact.

"Man, I pity the death eaters…not," Ron chuckled.

"What if—"

"—The death eater is—"

"—A woman?"

"…Never thought about that actually," Harry replied quietly.

The males burst out laughing. It was good to have Harry with them. It was like there was no war looming ahead and they could enjoy their life.

"Come on, we have a wedding to do," before the women and girls could move, Bill opened the door. They all fell to the floor in heaps. The males were staring at them.

"Uh…hi?" the females squeaked. They had a nice view of Harry's bare chest with the twins still drabbed around his shoulder, before Harry remembered about his half nakedness and covered himself with his cloak. There was a disappointment plastered on their faces.

"Oh, geez!" he cried out.

TBC…

Harry filled out in a month, not only because of his training or diet, but also because he downed nutrient potion to fix his malnourished body, if you want to know. Want to add funny scene in this chapter.

And yes, here Scrimgeour didn't have time to approach Harry after the funeral, so he'll sought for him later in the wedding.

Yeah, I don't like HarryGinny pairing, so what? I'm more of HarryHermione (as long as she isn't bossy and controlling too much). That said, I don't plan to make any pairing at all here. Dunno if it'll change.

Naruto didn't seem as cold as he first to be. That's because it's hard for him to do that when his client is still young and he has crappy life. So he is kind of pitying Harry. He'll be cold and closed up in battle though. He'll try to detach any attachment to anyone including Harry, but our wizard hero _is_ stubborn like Naruto used to be.

Another thing I'm not sure about…Is Nagini a real horcrux? It's a living thing and thus is influenced by time (meaning it can die of old age). What do you guys think? Should I make another thing as the real horcrux and not Nagini? That way both Gryffindor and Ravenclaw things will be horcruxes, instead of one of them.


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